Before Questions I was referring to the damage done to public telephone kiosks by vandals, a reprehensible act which must be prevented. I was asking for public co-operation in the prevention of such vandalism and appealing to our people to take an interest in this matter. I appealed to those who do such damage to take into consideration the tragedy that may arise if a person seeking a doctor or help urgently finds that the local public telephone is broken. Until we are in a position to give telephone on demand we must continue to increase the number of public kiosks to serve our people. The Department made great strides in recent years by the introduction of vandal proof kiosks. It is strange that in modern life throughout the world there are mindless people vandalising such objects as telephone kiosks thereby depriving people of a necessary service in the event of an emergency. The vandals should cease this senseless and criminal practice. Local residents should become more vigilant and report to the Garda any damage done to kiosks. I understand that the problem is declining.
Next year, the year of the disabled, the trade unions should join with the Department to ensure that every effort is made to provide telephones for the disabled and those old people who live alone. An effort should be made also to improve the postal delivery service to such people. During the postal dispute I saw many people queueing outside Government offices to collect their pensions. Most of those people suffered grievously from exposure in the bad weather as they queued for many weary hours to draw their pension. Next year we should join together to help such people. Already the State has helped such people by giving pensioners who live alone priority in the installation of telephones and also exempting them from rent. The telephone is a great line of security for old people because they can contact the Garda, relatives or a doctor. We would be showing our concern for such people if we co-operated with other European countries in helping the disabled.
I accept that our postal service is improving and this was indicated this morning by the Minister who produced impressive figures. It may be possible next year to expand the existing schemes of benefit for the disabled. The free TV licence scheme for pensioners is also a good one. With regard to the campaign to collect TV licence fees I should like to say that I dislike the word "spongers". People may say that if the programme content was better they would be more inclined to pay the licence fee but I do not accept that. Owners of television sets must accept that as we have two channels there is an onus on them to pay their licence fee. If the RTE authority lose £6 million in revenue because of the failure of some people to pay their licence fee then consideration must be given to other ways of collecting the fee. The scheme whereby people can save towards the cost of the licence fee by purchasing stamps weekly is a good one. Those who visit the cinema are aware of how expensive that form of entertainment is and the TV licence fee is equivalent to the cost of a few visits to a city cinema. Of course, there are people who do not have the money to pay the fee. It is those who deliberately set out to avoid paying the fee that should be pursued. The existing system of collection should be examined carefully because RTE should not be expected to try to carry on without that £6 million. The Department should embark on another campaign to encourage people to save towards the cost of the licence fee by purchasing the appropriate stamps periodically.
The Post Office is a very complex organisation and, as our society becomes more complex, it will assume a bigger part in our lives. The Government's decision to create new bodies to look after the various facets of the Post Office services is to be welcomed. Other countries have done this, and they have improved the services. For many years we did not expand. We looked to the State to do everything. It did some great things too. There was a time some years ago when the Post Office made a profit. Books can be balanced by various means. While I am not very keen to see a profit being made, the new measures taken will ensure that the Department are more efficient. All of us can do our job better if we try a bit harder, and it is no reflection on the Department to say things could be improved.
They provide one very small but essential service. I see a man going around the city cleaning the kiosks. He seems to like his job very much, and he does a good job. He sets a headline for some thoughtless people who destroy telephone directories and damage kiosks. I cannot offer any suggestion to the Minister as to how we can keep our telephone kiosks in better order. This is a matter for the public. We cannot have a garda standing outside each kiosk. We must rely on the good sense of the people to ensure that public property is not damaged. The telephone kiosk provides an essential service. On the Continent kiosks are very well maintained. I never saw one vandalised. In a nearby country they have the same problem with vandals as we have.
The Minister said that the original Estimate for the Department for 1980 was a net sum of £234,864,000. It is not long since the national budget hardly reached that figure. Inflation has increased costs. The Department's budget has gone up because they are providing more and better services. We are all very jealous of the Department because they play such a vital part in our whole system. Members of the Opposition may criticise Government outlay and call for a cut in public spending but, behind it all, they would not disagree with the fact that taxation is necessary if we are to provide a proper service.
In future so much money will not come from taxation, but from payment for services provided by the Post Office. There are many ways in which the Post Office could expand their services on a commercial basis. This would also create employment. The Minister said that 1,000 technical people or trainees were taken on in the Post Office. It is very comforting to know that. We are building up a very fine industry in communications and in the computer line, thanks to the Department of Industry, Commerce and Tourism, the IDA, CTT and other bodies under the Government's supervision. The technical branches of the Post Office play an essential part.
We must be very jealous of industrial relations in the Department. The Minister, the Minister of State and the trade unions realise that. We must have cooperation between all the bodies in the Post Office because the least hitch causes suffering to people, as we have seen in the past. The Government are taxing us to pay for a service and we have to ensure that a very good service is given for the money spent. Since the days of Rowland Hill and Edison communications have been an essential service. They are becoming more sophisticated and costly. I do not think people will cavil at the cost if they are getting a good service. People are realistic. With their publicity the Post Office are taking people into their confidence and showing them what is being done. The public will give them all the backing they need in order to ensure that the service continues to improve.
Questions may be asked whether the Department of Posts and Telegraphs should be a State Department at all, but the State must be involved in such an important facet of our lives as communications. The national Parliament is a forum for criticism, for suggestions and for praise. In a healthy democracy we must have a free press and a free judiciary. We must also have a very sophisticated system of communications. All this costs money and people may cavil at being taxed. I know of no other way of doing it at the moment until the Minister and the Department set up the new bodies within the Department. They can then come up with all the answers. I would like the Minister to press on and give these new bodies a bit of a push. I know they are not fully established yet, but I should like to hear their plans for improvements.
It is most heartening to read of many of the things the Minister is doing. He and the Minister of State have adopted a refreshing approach to many of the problems in the Department. No doubt their predecessors also contributed something to the present position. They laid a certain base for this. We must realise that we are somewhat behind our European and UK counterparts in communications. In most cases it is easier to make a telephone call abroad. We must, therefore, have regard to the high standard of world telecommunications and improve ours.
We are confident that the Government and the Department are handling this problem well. We know that there could be further improvements and that improvements will occur before the end of the financial year. In the full Estimate early next year I hope more money will be provided and that a new scheme to give top priority to aged people living alone will be implemented so they will at least have the basic requirement of a telephone. Unfortunately the incidence of crime against old people is increasing. The mark of any civilisation is how it treats its old people. We hope to ensure that old and handicapped people will be able to have a telephone. The Minister assures me that it will not cost an awful lot of money to do this. I am sure all parties will back any measure such as this.
We will provide 60,000 telephones this year and 80,000 next year. We should try to increase that figure. The goodwill of the Minister and the Department and the expertise is there to do that.
Next year the Department will mark the Year of the Disabled by drawing up a charter backed by the Government, the trade unions and all concerned. We will make a great break-through in providing certain things for the disabled, one of which will be a telephone in each house.
